Ambulance owner convicted in $1.7 million Medicare scheme

By Terri Langford |
March 6, 2013
| Updated: March 6, 2013 10:04pm

The Fort Bend owner of the Double Daniels private ambulance company has been convicted of fraudulently billing the Medicare program for more than $1.7 million.

A federal jury returned the verdict late Tuesday in Houston against Olusola Elliott, 44.

He was one of four EMS operators arrested last May for alleged fraudulent Medicare billing. The others were Grace Anassi, owner, and her husband Thomas Anassi, driver, at Touching Hearts EMS of Houston, who billed $886,688 in claims; and Okechukwu Ofoegbu, owner of Cardiomax EMS, who billed $1.73 million. A fourth operator, Gwendolyn Climmons-Johnson, a lawyer and owner of Urgent Response EMS of Houston, was accused of nearly a million dollars in false billings.

The Anassis have not been tried. Ofoegbu pleaded guilty last fall and awaits sentencing. A trial for Climmons-Johnson is scheduled for April 29.

Elliott was convicted of six counts of health care fraud and one count of conspiracy. Sentencing was set for May 31.

Prosecutors said trial evidence convinced jurors that Elliott and others conspired from April 2010 through December 2011 to submit false claims to Medicare for ambulance services that were not provided.

Other evidence showed that he faked patient records in order to bill Medicare on behalf of people who did not need ambulance services.

The six fraud counts and the conspiracy count carry a maximum potential penalty of 10 years in prison each, along with a $250,000 fine.